->''"So ride along with Thor as he loses, then regains his magic powers, hooks up with Jane, saves two different realms from destruction, and learns the virtues of patience and humility all over the course of a long weekend. Seriously, this whole movie takes place over two-and-a-half days."''-->-- '''WebVideo/HonestTrailers''', on ''Film/{{Thor}}''

There are epics that span a lifetime as it follows the life between two characters, and their challenges to be together. There are others that span [[GenerationalSaga multiple generations]], as decades pass and history unfolds in the background.

Then there's the story where everything happens in just a few hours: Introduction, conflict, character development, dramatic climax, denouement, done!

Extremely Short Timespan is when a story, usually a movie, a novel, or a whole season, takes place in a short period of time, usually [[RuleOfThree three]] days or less. This is sometimes done in an action or a thriller movie to emphasize its fast pacing.

One sub-trope is RealTime, where everything happens within a minute-to-minute ratio between in-universe and real-life production (automatically a sub-trope of this except for some extremely long experimental films).

Note, though, that the majority of movies take place within a relatively short time span, most top out around a few weeks. The trope is about unusually tightened time spans. For movies it is a few days or less. For television shows, the assumption is that each yearly season corresponds to a year in real life. So compressing an entire season into a couple months or less qualifies as this trope.

Not related to WebcomicTime, when the real and in-universe time scales are out of sync due to production time. BrieferThanTheyThink is a real life variation. See ImmediateSequel for when the short span of time forms an arc rather than contained to a single story. See also CartoonlandTime for this trope in action with animated features.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* The first chapter of the Moon arc ''Manga/SoulEater'' was chapter 90, and it ended in the middle of 113. That's about five volumes set in the same morning. * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' ironically, considering it's a series about ReallySevenHundredYearsOld dead people. This is mostly thanks to Creator/TiteKubo adhering ''strictly'' to the FourLinesAllWaiting rule:** The Soul Society Arc revolves around an execution to take place at the end of a week. This took two years and 14 volumes.** The Hueco Mundo Arc took eight volumes to cover a single day.** The two arcs later (Fake Karakura and Deicide arcs) top the above with a single day covered in 11 volumes.*** Going even further, the Hueco Mundo arc and the two following it occur on the same day (October 11th).** However, all above are topped by the final arc, the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. While it takes place in only three days tops (currently) amid [[TheReveal revelations]], WhamEpisode, and other brouhaha, it requires 198 chapters in over 4 years of publication, of which about 184 have been collected in ''18'' separate volumes. [[UpToEleven And it's still ongoing]].* The Piccolo Daimaoh and Boo arcs in ''Manga/DragonBall'' take 3 days each, the same days at that: May 7th to May 9th. One of many odd parallels across both arcs. Taken to ridiculous amounts with the five minutes that it took for Namek to explode, stretching over ten episodes.* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. While the series as a whole covers a few years, the last sixteen or so episodes (minus the epilogue) seem to span only a couple days.* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Many of the combatants during the assault on Meruem’s castle are top-level fighters and used to operating at scales of minutes, if not seconds and microseconds. So there happens so much during the opening moments of the battle that entire episodes are required to convey it all.* The Festival {{Arc}} in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' was exactly 3 days June 20-22, 2003 (TimeTravel was involved) that covered half the manga up to that point (9 Volumes). Taken UpToEleven in manga chapter 310, which spans ''several seconds''.* ''Manga/KarakuridoujiUltimo'' has been running for over a year now. We've only gone through ''one day''. (Although the reset button was hit somewhere in the middle of it.)* The various arcs of ''Manga/YuGiOh''. The episodic chapters from before the first arc are presumed to each happen on different days: the first real arc (in which Shadi appears and causes trouble) starts on a weekend and ends on the night of the next day, lasting seven chapters. Death-T is two volumes (fourteen chapters) long, and lasts about a day and a half. Monster World is ten chapters long and takes place in a single afternoon. Then the arcs get longer, [[DecompressedComic but only for the readers]]: Duelist Kingdom lasts seven volumes, but for the characters only three days pass; two days for the preliminaries and one for the finals. After that, there is another smaller arc that's only one volume long and takes only a few hours. Battle City is the longest arc by far, taking a full fourteen volumes to tell, but is only two days long. The last arc, Millenium World, is seven volumes long and lasts [[spoiler:only over the course of a Tabletop RPG campaign]], not counting the Ceremonial Duel at the end.* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has this occur quite often. While some arcs can go into several dozens of chapters, in ComicBookTime barely a few days, if that, typically passes. The longest time spent in any one place prior to the TimeSkip is Alabasta, where the Straw Hats spent a length of time crossing the desert. WordOfGod states that from the first chapter all the way up to the Sabody Archipelago took ''three months'' in-universe.* The ''Franchise/{{Jewelpet}}'' movie happens in about 2 days.* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', episodes 5 to the beginning of 13 take place in one day. ** In the same vein, volumes 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and the beginning chapter of volume 13 span about 2 and a half days. It makes it less clear by doing one storyline, which takes less than a day, the second part of that storyline, which takes the rest of the day, then focusing on the supporting characters and their storyline, which starts toward the beginning of the primary storyline, lasts until the end of that day to the following morning, and weaves them both together into another storyline that lasts until nighttime of the second day.* The ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' movie "Paint It White!" lasts just two days.* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', this happens to several arcs, although the manga does a good job at averting this as a whole by skipping some needed time between each arcs.** The Chunin Exams arc up to the end of the third takes place within a span of three days, but it takes up 6 volumes and about a year and a half of publishing. Thankfully, the arc's climax itself is set a month afterward.** After the aforementioned one month timeskip, the arc resumes and gets immediately chained up with the following Konoha Invasion arc. Both happens in less than a single day, although it takes up 6 volumes and another year and a half of publishing.** The Sasuke Retrieval arc covers two intense days (the first for Sasuke to run away with the Sound Four, the second for the retrieval itself) but takes up 7 whole volumes.** The biggest one, however, would be the Ninja World War arc and all of its subarcs, including the Ten Tails, Madara's and Kaguya's Returns, and the Final Battle, which take place in less than three days but need ''18'' volumes to cover and over 4 years of publishing. However, it's justified since it's the manga's last arc; you'd think the author would go all out for it. It is also more than made up by [[spoiler: the DistantFinale, which is set no less than 14 years later.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* The ''ComicBook/SpiderMen'' miniseries takes place over the course of around 2 days, or a little less. Unfortunately, this gives little time for [[ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan Miles]] and [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter]] to hang out with each other, since Peter has to leave immediately at the end of that time.* The first two arcs of ''Comicbook/{{Zatanna}}'' took place in less than twenty-four hours, possibly twelve.* ''ComicBook/SinCity'' has ''Silent Night'' and ''Just Another Saturday Night'' which, as the titles imply, take place in a single night. The ''Big Fat Kill'' is a major storyline that only takes place over the course of a single night as well.* Many superhero comic books operate on this principle. A six-issue ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' arc, for instance, may only take place over the course of a single night or a couple of days at most, which allows the character to (at least somewhat) realistically appear in four or five books at the same time.* Creator/JossWhedon's stories for Marvel usually take place over very short periods of time, because he doesn't like to play along with whatever crossover event is currently going on. Sadly, this tendency was probably the reason for the sudden end of his run on ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', as Marvel wanted the team available for a ''Comicbook/SecretInvasion'' tie-in miniseries.* The average CrisisCrossover takes less time to happen than it does to read, but the all-time champion of this trope was ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', which took place between midnight and dawn on a single night.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]* ''FanFic/PiracyTheGeneticPirateOpera'' took place during a very busy Friday night.* If you bother to keep track, ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'', despite being forty-four chapters long, takes place over the course of six very convoluted days:** Day 1 covers chapter 1 (Ebony describes herself and meets Draco)** Day 2 covers chapters 2 - 5 (Ebony goes on a date with Draco and Dumbledore catches them having sex in the Forbidden Forrest)** Day 3 covers chapters 6 - 17 (Ebony meeting "Vampire" in the Great Hall all the way through Dumbledore saving everyone at the [=MCR=] concert)** Day 4 covers chapters 18 - 21 (Dumbledore repainting the Great Hall through Ebony having a vision about the "Mystery of Magic" walking into the school)** Day 5 covers chapters 22 - 33 ("Cornelia Fudged" and "Doris Rumbridge" yelling at Dumbledore through "Snap" and "Loopin" getting tortured)** Day 6 covers chapters 34 - 44 (Ebony takes several trips back and forth in time for the remainder of the story)* In the ''Fanfic/HorseshoesAndHandGrenades'' side-story ''Month of Sundays'', its summary states that it takes place over the course of around two days, Judging by the fact that there's 23 chapters[[note]]It's actually numbered 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, etc.[[/note]] and 24 hours hasn't passed yet.* The main story of ''FanFic/TheFireOfFuturesPast'' takes place over the course of one night.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/ArthurChristmas'' takes place during Christmas Eve.* Excluding the FramingDevice and prologue, ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' takes place over two days.* ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' takes place in one night.* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon:** Most of ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' unfolds over 2-3 days, although it is followed by a TimeSkip to the final scene.** ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'' takes place in the span of three nights and two days.** The main story of ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' takes place over 24 hours. ** ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' takes place in a two day/one night timespan, not counting a prologue and TimeSkip.** ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'' appears to be a single night.** ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': Surprisingly, given all that happens, from the moment Aladdin is jumping ahead to Jafar's defeat, only two days and three nights pass.** In the ''Disney/TheLionKing'', the first part of the film (during Simba's childhood) is set within only two or three days. In the same idea, its sequel ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'' has the most part, when the two main characters are adult, set within three days and three nights.** Except for the closing montage, ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' takes place over five days.** ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', except for the prologue back story, takes place in less than three days.** Aside from the prologue and epilogue, ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' takes place over two days, with the majority of the story happening in a single night.** ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': Excluding the prologue, the film takes place in over three days.* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2'' the whole movie takes place in one or two days.* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' takes place over three very hectic days, plus a TimeSkip to the final sequence.* A majority of ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress'' takes place in one night, staying five minutes to midnight for several hours. Justified that Christmas Eve is a [[AWizardDidIt magical night after all]].* ''Anime/TheCatReturns'': Not including the epilogue, the film takes place in a span of two-and-a-half days: Haru rescues Prince Lune on the first day, is taken to the Cat Kingdom on the second day, and escapes by the dawn of the third day.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]* This tends to happen in most films featuring a LotusEaterMachine or CuckooNest.** ''Film/GroundhogDay'': The main character [[GroundhogDayLoop lives (and relives) the same 24 hours over and over again for 10 years]].** ''Film/JacobsLadder'': Packs more than 20 years into [[spoiler: a dying man's final thoughts]].** ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'': Over three decades packed into [[spoiler: the three hours it takes Jesus to die on his Cross]].** ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'' has nearly the ''entire movie'' turn out to be this, with several months of action turning out to be AllJustADream that takes place in one man's head during a brief trip to the restroom. The man's fantasy aside, this film has about 2 hours and 20 minutes of screen time correspond to no more than 15 minutes of in-universe time. Alternatively, Satan hit the ResetButton, since he showed up again just before the end credits.* ''11:14'' is an extreme version. It's a full-length movie, but due to being RashomonStyle with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, the events of about a quarter of an hour (at most) covered in RealTime, fills a feature-length film.* ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'' takes place over one afternoon in RealTime.* Creator/SpikeLee's ''The 25th Hour'', which takes place over a day, but with several flashbacks.* ''30 Minutes Or Less'' The main part of the movie takes place in 24 hours or so.* ''Film/EightyEightMinutes'' (actually a little more than 88 minutes).* Excluding the {{Time Skip}}s at the beginning and end, the entirety of ''Film/NinetyNineRiverStreet'' takes place over just a few hours in one night.* ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'' takes place over a span of several hours at the end of one day.* The 4-film ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise takes place over 257 years of history, but, since Ripley spends 57 years in cryosleep between the first and second films, and 200 years [[spoiler: dead]] between the third and fourth, the entire saga takes up no more than a month of her life, which can be a surprising realization considering the huge amounts of CharacterDevelopment she goes through during and between each film.* The Polish film ''Ashes and Diamonds'' takes place over two days, May 8th and 9th 1945. * From the perspective of its protagonist, ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' seems to take place in the course of two very busy days, at most. Otherwise, it took about sixty years. Your choice. The first film begins in October 25, 1985 at 8:25am and Marty travels to 1955 around 1:21am on the 26th. There he spends a week (from November the 5th to the 12th) only to return to 1985 10 minutes before he originally left. He wakes up on the morning of October 26 and travels, along with the Doc and Jennifer, to 2015 where he spends just under three hours. Then he spends about six hours in the alternate 1985 during the night of October 26-27, the whole of November 12, 1955 again but this time he spends the night. He departs 1955 on November 16 after Doc fixes the DeLorean and heads to September 2, 1885, where he spends another week and then he returns to October 27, 1985 at 11am. At the end, he spent '''16 days''' time traveling in two days, with the time periods he travels to spanning 130 years. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Doc when they go back to 1955.--> '''Marty''': ''This is heavy, Doc! It feels like I was here yesterday!''\\'''Doc''': ''You WERE here yesterday, Marty! You were!''* ''Film/BadDayAtBlackRock''. The 'Day' of the title is literal, with the events of the movie encompassing about 24 hours.* The Disney Channel Original Movie ''Film/BadHairDay'' takes place over the course of one entire day - the day of Monica's prom. Excluding the prologue.* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', the mayoral campaign of Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. The Penguin) lasts less than two days. Even more shockingly, the people of Gotham City had known about his existence for ''less than a week'' before that, but still almost voted him into office.* ''Film/BeforeSunrise'' takes place over the course of about twenty-four hours. The sequel ''Before Sunset'' ups the ante by going RealTime, as with ''Before Midnight''.%%* ''Film/BicycleThieves''* Given ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' is set to a battle that took a single day, it's expected - and even the scenes before the struggle are 2 days prior to the Battle of Mogadishu at maximum.* ''Film/BladeRunner'' may not have as short a timespan as the book (see Literature), but still takes only a couple nights from start to finish (especially if Deckard is summoned the same day Leon starts the movie with).* ''Film/TheBlob1958'' happens in one night.* ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' takes place over the course of a few hours of March 24th, 1984, starting in the morning and ending in the late afternoon.* ''Film/{{Buffalo 66}}'' takes place over 24 hours, flashbacks notwithstanding.* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' takes place in one hell of a day - mostly after nightfall.* ''Film/CantHardlyWait'' takes place over a 24-hour period, although there's a brief flashback or two. Not only that: the introduction is about five minutes long, during a high school graduation ceremony. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue is the following morning, likewise about five minutes long. The rest of the movie is at a party, all after dark on the day in between.%%* ''Film/{{Cellular}}''* The bulk of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' (barring the "tape skip" flashbacks) takes place over a single night and the following morning.* ''Film/{{Clue}}'' takes place in a single evening, with no flashbacks.* The plot of ''Film/{{Coherence}}'' spans over one night up until the next morning.%%* ''Film/{{Crank}}'' and the sequel ''Film/CrankHighVoltage''.* The screen adaption of ''Film/TheCrimsonRivers'' manages to pack ''a lot'' of plot into mere 24 hours. In fact, it is only confirmed by WordOfGod in a post-release commentary.* Death decides that it will only take him three days to find out why the human race fears him so in ''Film/DeathTakesAHoliday''.* ''Devil'' starts in late afternoon and ends at night, so it takes place only in a couple of hours.* A hallmark of the ''Franchise/DieHard'' franchise:** ''Film/DieHard'' begins in late afternoon and ends before sunrise. ** ''Film/DieHard2'' spans a single night.** ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'' is mostly across a single day, though it's unclear whether the opening and closing sequences are before\after this busy day.** ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' has the majority of events on a span of 36 hours (Creator/BruceWillis and director Len Wiseman even discussed during production how John [=McClane=] and his hacker companion go through all this [[BottomlessBladder with barely a snooze]]). ** ''Film/AGoodDayToDieHard'' takes place in one evening and the following morning.* ''Film/DogDayAfternoon'' takes place during a single afternoon and evening.* ''Film/DoTheRightThing'' takes place on a hot summer afternoon.* ''Film/DraftDay'' starts 12 hours before the 2014 NFL draft and ends after the first round picks (ignoring the epilogue).* The events of ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' take place over a 24 hour period (starting at dawn and ending the next morning).* ''Film/DrStrangelove'' takes place over one night.* ''Film/EagleEye'' is set across three hectic days - then the ending skips to what happened to the characters in the following months.* ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' takes place within one day.* ''Eleven Minutes Ago'' takes place over the course of the wedding reception. The main character, on the other hand, is experiencing it in eleven minute chunks over the course of years. It's a little [[TimeyWimeyBall Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey]].* ''Film/EmpireRecords'' is set across one very eventful day: April 8th, a.k.a. Rex Manning Day. Though the opening scene takes place the previous night, this may arguably be the same day since it is after closing and Empire Records is "Open 'Till Midnight".* The first two ''Franchise/EvilDead'' movies take place over the course of one night a piece. ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' seems to takes place in the span of about three days (minus the epilogue), making the entire series happen in about a week.* ''Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'': Although the end of the film jumps ahead one week, the rest of it takes place over two days.* ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' in less than 12 hours.* ''Film/TheFifthElement'' opens with a prologue in 1914, but once it moves to the futuristic setting, basically everything takes place over two days (and that's with an interplanetary travel which is said to take four hours). The exception is the final scene, which is unclear how long afterwards it takes place.* Most movies in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series take place in a day and ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPart2 Part 2]]'', ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII Part III]]'' and ''[[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter The Final Chapter]]'' all take place in about three to five days.* ''Film/{{Getaway}}'' begins one morning and ends the next.* The Lithuanian film ''Film/TheGirlAndTheEcho'' takes place within one day. This is mirrored in its alternative title, ''Paskutine Atostogu Diena'' ("Last day of Holydays").* ''Film/GrandHotel'' takes place over about 48 hours, or two days and nights at the hotel, as all the characters in the EnsembleCast check in and proceed to go through major life-changing events.* ''Film/{{Gravity}}'' takes place over about 4 hours, as the debris field attacks are 90 minutes apart, and Stone [[spoiler: re-enters]] just after the third.* ''Film/HalloweenII1981'' takes place on the same night the first film ended. And the first film itself only covers Halloween morning until midway through the evening (aside from the opening scene showing kid Michael killing his sister).* ''Film/TheHangover'' takes place across three days (the Wolf Pack goes to Vegas, the day after the wild night, the wedding day). The sequel is longer, at least 4 or 5 days.%%* ''Film/HardCandy''* ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' starts in the late afternoon and ends the following morning.* ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2]]'' takes place over about twenty-four hours, aside from the flashbacks and the epilogue. This is in stark contrast to the other films, which each take place over about a year. This is also true with [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the book]], as noted below in Literature.* ''Film/HarshTimes'' takes place over a single 24-hour period. * ''Film/HighNoon'': the film begins early in the morning and ends a couple minute after noon.* ''Film/HiroshimaMonAmour'' takes place over 36 hours, as the French actress and her Japanese lover spend time together right before her scheduled departure home.* ''Film/HolyMotors'' plays out within the course of 24 hours.* The 1986 portion of ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' plays out during one night.* ''Film/TheHouseOfYes'' mostly takes place over a single, Thanksgiving night.* The entirety of ''Film/IndependenceDay'' explicitly takes place in a three day span, from July 2nd to the 4th. [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence The sequel]] has almost everything fit on the 4th of July where mankind would celebrate 20 years of the first movie's victory. * ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' takes place in a single day. SpiritualSuccessor ''Film/RatRace'' too, though apparently it's a longer period (it even gets dark) and features one flashback.* Taking away the beginning and ending, ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' takes place in three different days: one in 1969, another in 1995 where the bulk of the movie happens, followed by [[spoiler:[[ResetButton a return to 1969]]]].* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' has fun with this. In the goblin world, Sarah's quest needs to be completed in 13 hours, and she ''instantly'' loses a few of them midway through when she feigns confidence and tells the villain -- a RealityWarper -- that the Labyrinth is "a piece of cake". Meanwhile in Sarah's world, less than ''five'' hours pass while she's away (the opening scene there takes place shortly before 7 p.m., the final scene shortly after midnight).* ''Film/LaHaine'' takes place over the course of less than one day. We are clued in via {{Title Card}}s showing progressing timestamps.* The Australian film ''Last Train to Freo'' is set entirely on a train traveling from Midland to Freemantle in Perth and takes about as long as that journey would take (although they do have the train break down for about ten minutes to give the story a little more time).* ''[[Film/LethalWeapon Lethal Weapon 3]]'' takes place over the last eight days before Murtaugh's retirement. [[spoiler: In the end, he doesn't retire.]]* Most of ''Film/LiarLiar'' takes place over one day (as in from sunrise to sunset).* ''Film/TheLivingWake'' takes place over 12 hours, at most. (It starts in the morning, and ends at 7:30 that night. It's not clear exactly what time it is at the beginning, but it can't be earlier than 7:30 or so.)* Most of ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' takes place in around two days. (it's unclear how long it takes between Max's capture and his "conscription" as a blood bag)* ''Film/{{Magnolia}}'' focuses on a group of intersecting characters during the course of one day.* ''Film/MarginCall'' takes place in a 24-hour period.* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:** The franchise has three movies taking place at the same time. ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', ''Film/IronMan2'', and ''Film/{{Thor}}'' all take place roughly within the span of the same week. The Marvel One-Shot ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots The Consultant]]'' has Coulson still in New Mexico (after the events of ''Thor'') when Stark goes talking to Thunderbolt Ross in ''Hulk''. The miniseries ''Comicbook/TheAvengersPreludeNickFurysBigWeek'' confirms that Blonsky became the Abomination at the same time as Thor was breaking into the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, which was the day after the Stark Expo.** Most of the individual movies also take place over a few days at most. Post-''Film/TheAvengers2012'', this helps justify why none of the heroes go to their friends for help: There's just not enough time.* French film ''Film/LeMillion'' takes place over a single afternoon and evening, as the characters scramble to find a lost coat that contains a winning lottery ticket.* ''Film/MiracleMile'' takes place in one night.* As the title suggests, ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'' takes place over one day.* ''Film/TheMist'' takes place in a only a couple of days, even thought it's kind hard to tell the days because of...the mist.* ''Film/MurderByDeath'' takes place over a single evening.* With the possible exception of the final scene, most of ''Film/MysteryTeam'' takes place over the course of a few days.* ''Film/{{Nerve}}'' encompasses what may be the most stressful night ''ever''.* ''New Town Killers'' covers a period of slightly over 12 hours.* The Creator/JohnnyDepp film ''Film/NickOfTime'', which takes place in real time. About 90 minutes.* ''Film/NineDead'', aside from a few short scenes at the beginning about how the nine captives were abducted, entirely takes place over the course of about 80 minutes.* The plot of ''Film/OrangeCounty'' happens all in just one full day.* ''Film/{{P2}}'' takes place on a single [[HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday Christmas Eve night]].* ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'': The film (aside from a few flashbacks and the final scene) takes place from Christ's arrest at 3 a.m. Thursday night to his death at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.* ''Film/PineappleExpress'' takes place in two or three days.* ''Film/{{Predators}}'' begins at the morning of one day and it ends at the morning of the next... but given it's not Earth, days are not necessarily 24 hours.* Korean film ''Film/ThePresidentsLastBang'', a dramatization of the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, takes place over less than a day, the afternoon-evening-night of Oct. 26-27, 1979.* The majority of ''Film/{{Primer}}'' takes place over about three days. [[TimeyWimeyBall Multiple times]]. [[MindScrew Probably.]]* ''Film/ProjectX'' takes place over 24 hours or so.* ''Film/RedEye'' takes place over the course of about four ''very'' stressful, hectic hours. (And about three of those hours take place on an airplane.)* With the possible exception of up to the graveyard scene, the entirety of ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' takes place over the course of one day.* ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. The majority of the movie is set during a scant few hours immediately following the heist.* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' mostly takes place in one night apart from it starting with a wedding that afternoon.* ''Film/{{Rope}}'' takes place more or less in RealTime, covering the length of a dinner party, as well as a few minutes before and after.* The ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2199571/ Run All Night]]'' plot begins during an afternoon and ends the following morning.* ''Film/RunLolaRun'' covers the "same" twenty minutes three times, with an intro sequence and a few flashbacks in between.* ''Film/ScenicRoute'' also takes place in only a few days.* ''Film/{{Shampoo}}'' takes place over the course of one day, with some footage of the next day.* Other than the prologue and epilogue, ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' takes place over two life-changing days.* ''Film/SmokinAces'' takes place in less than 24 hours, ending at the the night of the same day it began, from different points of views, with a couple of flashbacks here and there.* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' Seems to take place in a couple of days (not counting the epilogue) even though it would probably take more time to travel from Earth to Qo'noS in the series, but in the movies it only takes a couple of hours tops.* ''Franchise/StarWars'':** ''Film/ANewHope'' appears to take place over the course of a few days. (There were apparently some scenes written that took place days or weeks earlier, and they were expanded for the later radio version, but they didn't appear in the movie).** The major part of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' takes place over three days.** Like ''Film/ANewHope'', ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' also takes place only in a couple of days.* ''Still Walking'' unfolds over one summer day.* ''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess'' plays out over the course of less than two days.* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''** ''Film/TheTerminator'' takes place over 2-3 days; ** Except for the prologues, ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' seems to take about 2-3 days, but is less clear on it. ** From Kyle Reese's point of view, ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'' also spans about 2-3 days, during which he time travels twice.* ''Film/TrainingDay'', as the name suggests, begins in the morning and ends at dawn.* ''Film/{{Triangle}}'' plays out in less than a day.* ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' takes place over five days - it begins on Day 10,909 and ends on Day 10,913 of Truman's life.* ''Film/{{Unknown 2006}}'' takes place over the course of less than 6 hours.* ''Film/VantagePoint'' covers roughly 23 minutes, shown from 8 points of view throughout the movie.* Absurdist summer camp comedy ''Film/WetHotAmericanSummer'' takes great pleasure with this trope. 95% of the film takes place over the course of a single day (August 18th, 1981, with the opening and ending scenes taking place on the previous night and next morning respectively), even showing regular updates about the time of day, but an absurdly large quantity of events are packed into that day, stretching the timeline almost beyond belief.* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' happens over the course of two eventful days; a deleted scene would've made it three.* ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'' begins, depending on which [[ReCut cut]] you watch, on the evening of April the 28th or the morning of April the 29th, and ends at sunset on May the 1st.* ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' takes place over three days: TheTeaser, the DistantFinale, and everything in between.* [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]] and ComicBook/JeanGrey spend less than a week together in the main ''Film/XMen'' trilogy, but their "relationship" is often remembered as one of the highlights of the series. They both live at Xavier's mansion in the first movie (which takes place over the course of a few days), but they don't see each other at all in the interim between ''X-Men'' and ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', as Logan leaves to look for the Alkali Lake facility and doesn't return until the beginning of ''X2''. Even when Logan returns, he doesn't see Jean again (aside from one brief conversation with her) until the night before the climactic FinalBattle -- during which [[spoiler: Jean dies]].* Why do you think it's called ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead''? Everything from Barbra's and Johnny's visit to the graveyard to "That's another one for the fire" does indeed take place over one night.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* The book ''Literature/AfterDark'' by Creator/HarukiMurakami takes place over the course of one night.* ''LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill'' takes place in [[GroundhogDayLoop a day that repeats over and over]]. Its film adaptation ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' extends to two (apart from the prologue), one where the protagonist is forced into battle, and the following one with the looping battle. [[spoiler:And once the villain is killed, the hero is sent back to the day before in a [[TrickedOutTime new timeline]].]]* Each of the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' books take place in three days, if not less. Although in ''The Lost Colony'' [[spoiler:three years pass for the rest of the world, while the trip in Hybras only lasted minutes for Artemis. Also, time was flowing differently there so it passed differently for their minds and bodies. As Artemis figured out: An hour per second for a count of forty, followed by a deceleration to thirty minutes per second for a count of eighteen, then a slight jump backwards in time, one minute per second back for a count of two. Then it repeats.]] Then in ''The Time Paradox'', most of the book takes place in the span of ten seconds, though it was roughly three days in the past.* Not counting flashbacks to the past, the beginning of ''Ptolemy's Gate'' from ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' is said to take place just a few days before the premiere of the great Quentin Makepeace's premiere of the play ''From Wapping to Westminster''. The play itself is when the big climax of the book goes down and everything wraps up the next day.* Creator/GeneWolfe's ''Literature/BookOfTheLongSun'' consists of four volumes, but covers only a handful of days.* Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' takes place over a few days at most; one of the main characters spends most of it on a cross country drive. Vonnegut would later write ''Literature/{{Galapagos}}'', which takes place over a million years.* Creator/DanBrown's books, being {{thriller}}s, usually take place within less than a day.* ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' spans only two or three days.* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', the ImmediateSequel to ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', takes place over several hours; it's telling that at the end Grandpa Joe notes he and Charlie have had quite a ''day'' between the tour of the factory in the first book and the events of this one. * ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' and other books in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' (and TV/film adaptations): [[YearInsideHourOutside a negligible amount of Earth time passes when people spend ages in Narnia]], and each narrative takes place over a few Earth days at most.* The build-up to the climax of ''Literature/TheCulture'' novel ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', by [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]], features several different series of events taking place all at once until they converge in a massive train-crash and laser battle. It all takes about 30 minutes or so in story, but spans dozens and dozens of pages as the narrative jumps back and forth as each piece moves incrementally into place. The train crash itself lasts 5 seconds of intense action with about 30 seconds of aftermath and then some additional violence among the survivors, described over several pages in slow detail because there is A LOT going on all at once.* ''Literature/Discworld'': ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' takes place entirely on [[YouMeanXmas Hogswatchnight]], although a lot of it is spent in various AnthropomorphicPersonification realms where time doesn't pass normally (including the "congruent reality" that enables the Hogfather to visit the entire Disc on a single night). Some other Discworld books have short time spans too. ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' has a timespan of a few days; the game at the end of the book is within the same week as the wizards' discussion at the beginning.* Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'', best known as the film ''Film/BladeRunner'' was based on, takes place over the course of a single day. However, the extremely volume and variety of events, life-changing revelations, emotional paradigm shifts, financial windfalls and disasters, and new people met and bonded with in various bizarre ways makes the short timespan seem staggering, especially as it includes the perspectives of both a primary and secondary protagonist. The main character himself can't believe events that happened earlier in the novel were the same day and not another lifetime.* Similar to the above, the book series ''DreamhouseKings'' have each of its books taking place in a timespan of usually no more than three days. [[TheScrappy Blame Xander and his constant reckness]].* Each book of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' covers maybe three days, which is an incredibly short time given all the abuse the [[MadeOfIron main character]] takes. Book 14, ''Literature/ColdDays'', ramps this UpToEleven, with the first 30 pages taking around three months, then the last 485 pages spanning around 24 hours.* For [[Creator/TherinKnite Therin Knite's]] ''Literature/{{Echoes}}'', most of the books in the series take place over the course of a few days, due to the time-sensitive nature of the echoes themselves.* Zigzagged in ''Literature/TheFatalDream''. The first third of the book takes place over nine years (including a six year TimeSkip) while the rest of the events occur in less than two months.* ''Literature/FinnegansWake'' happens during one night... [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible probably.]]* While each ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book takes place over roughly one year, the last third of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' minus the epilogue ([[spoiler:the Gringotts raid, Hogsmeade, the Battle of Hogwarts]]), 13 chapters, takes place over about 24 hours, from the morning of 1 May 1998 to that of the following day. The [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows eighth film]], which covers the same events, qualifies as well.* Vivian Vande Velde's young-adult science fiction novel ''Heir Apparent'' features a teenage girl trapped inside a VR game with time-distorting qualities. While several weeks pass from her perspective, her story is alternated with the attempt to revive her in the real world, where only a few hours pass.* ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'' is a pretty big offender. While there are pretty big jumps in time between the books, the novels themselves take place over four or five days each, roughly.* In stark contrast to his [[Literature/LesMiserables other famous book]], Creator/VictorHugo's ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' takes place over the course of a few days.* A few of the Literature/JustWilliam short stories take place over a single day as does the only novel in the series ''Just William's Luck''.* Patrick Rothfuss's ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle'' trilogy has each book being a spoken retelling of a large part of Kvothe's life. Each book in spite being very lengthy represents only a day of his storytelling even though that storytelling covers several years of his life. The strange part is that the actual retelling (with the book read out loud via Audiobook) is well in excess of a 24 hour day in length. To be fair, it's never mentioned that a day is 24 hours in this world. * Lots of Creator/DeanKoontz novels are like this, while others are a bit longer.* The Literature/LeftBehind book ''The Indwelling'' takes place within three days, from the time of Nicolae Carpathia's murder to the time that he is supernaturally resurrected in front of millions of people. ''Glorious Appearing'' takes place in no less than two days at the most, since it covers Jesus' SecondComing.* Georges Perec's ''Life: A User's Manual'' technically takes place over the course of a few seconds on the evening of June 23rd, 1975, though largely told through flashbacks.* The ''Literature/{{Malazan|BookOfTheFallen}}'' prequel novel ''Literature/NightOfKnives'' takes place within 24 hours, which is unusual for a series known for taking huge and epic UpToEleven.* Nicholson Baker's novel ''The Mezzanine'' takes place in the span of a single escalator ride.* Creator/VirginiaWoolf's ''Literature/MrsDalloway'' takes place over a single day.* ''Literature/TheNightOfWishes'' starts at [[NewYearhasCome New Year's Eve]] and ends a few minutes after midnight.* The ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novels all happen within three days, two of which are usually connected by the characters having an all-nighter. The only exception was the first half of the third novel, that adapts a plot-essential chain of events that happen over a longer time in the original webseries.* ''[[Literature/RachelGriffin The Unexpected Enlightenment Of Rachel Griffin]]'' begins on the first day of Rachel's term in [[AcademyOfAdventure Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts]]. The events of the book (uncovering a world-spanning conspiracy, saving classmates' lives several times on different occasions, making friends, and saving the school from [[spoiler: a dragon]]) cover five days. Rachel wonders if the rest of the term is going to be as exciting. She [[TemptingFate certainly hopes not.]]* Creator/StephenKing's book ''Literature/TheRegulators'' takes place over the course of a single day (''Literature/{{Desperation}}'', an AU version of Regulators published under the King name, does so as well), while ''Literature/TheRunningMan'' (written under his Bachmann pen name) happens within three days or so.* Where many fantasy novels separate their sections into "book 1, book 2, book 3," and so on, the first four books of ''Literature/TheRunelords'' are separated by the day. Very nearly every minute is accounted for, often from multiple perspectives. With time-skips of maybe a week or two in between each book, the entire first tetralogy takes place over a couple months at most.* Each book in ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' series takes place with a timespan of two days. This is ''very'' ironic, since the plot involves supernatural Elders that had been waiting for thousands of years.* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':** Much of the ''Literature/JediApprentice'' series takes place in the year Obi-Wan is thirteen. During that time he and Qui-Gon unseat a criminal syndicate from planetary rule, resolve an abdication crisis, then Obi-Wan leaves the Jedi for a few months, resolves a generational conflict, he and Qui-Gon bring the BigBad to justice ''and'' save a planet from environmental exploitation, Obi-Wan rejoins the Jedi, and finally they end a well-intentioned fascistic regime. It's only after the ''ninth'' book that Obi-Wan is said to be 14.** While the twelve-book ''series'' ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' takes place over a period of six months or so, each book encompasses a variable period, ranging from a few to forty-eight hours, and only rarely more. These are always exceedingly eventful hours. Most of the unmentioned time seems to be spent in transit from one place to another.* While the trope's averted in the second book, ''Literature/{{Stuck}}'' uses this twice:** ''Literature/StuckAtTheGalleria'', aside from the very beginning, takes place over the course of one very busy night.** Likewise, ''Stuck at the Wheel'' takes place over a week and a day, including the epilogue.* The notorious DoorStopper ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'' takes place over the course of a single day.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* ''Series/TwentyFour'' is most likely the most well-known example of this trope, as each season takes place, wait for it, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in twenty-four hours]]; and each episode takes place over the course of a single hour* While many episodes of ''Series/OneHundredThingsToDoBeforeHighSchool'' last for about one school day, "Sit at a Different Lunch Table Thing!" lasts only for one lunch period (minus the epilogue).* The plot of the ''[[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations KiKa]]'' teen drama ''Series/AlleinGegenDieZeit'' (''Alone Against The Clock'') takes place in only thirteen hours in both seasons (from 8 am to 8 pm).* ''Series/BreakingBad'': From Season 1 (Pilot) to Season 5 (Fifty-One) is only a year. However, from "Fifty-One" to "Felina" is another one year.* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':** Season 5's "The Body" takes place entirely in real time, which means the episode covers roughly forty minutes - barring the Christmas flashback that plays over the opening credits.** Season 7's "Conversations With Dead People" takes place only within a couple of hours at night. Enough time for Xander to have been asleep (and thus not in the episode) and get woken early when the next episode starts.* ''Series/{{Community}}'' has a tendency to descend into chaos very quickly.** In the first season Jeff takes a one-hour nap in his car and finds a game of paintball has thrown the school into chaos, with themed groups appearing.** In the second season finale another game of paintball results in the school collapsing and a new social order being formed, with Pierce setting himself up as the leader of his own little sanctuary team over a few hours.** In the third season a war is fought with pillows over about three days.** In the fifth season a game of The Floor is Lava takes a few hours to create a punk-themed post-apocalyptic setting, with culturally distinct factions and legends.--->'''Troy:''' You used that bench to upset the balance. By the vapors of Magmarath we will restore it!\\'''Britta:''' You have ''gods?''** Again in the fifth season, it takes a new app for rating things 8 days to result in a complete restructuring of the schools hierarchy, with the leaders of the new system using BreadAndCircuses to appease the masses, before a revolution overthrows the "old" order.--->'''[[JustTheFirstCitizen Britta]]:''' Nonsense! All fives were reduced to oneness in the Great Purge of about 2 minutes ago.* ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'': Every episode takes place over a day, except for one case where one day is covered by two episodes.* ''Series/DoctorWho'':** The entirety of season 12, along with the first few stories of season 13, which all lead into each other, takes place in only a few days.** The events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV Movie]] unfold over New Year's Eve 1999 and the early hours of New Year's Day 2000.** In the new series, most of the time, a new companion's first few episodes will take place over a few days before they are initially returned to their home time, with little-to-no off-screen adventures.*** For Rose, from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose Rose]]" to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Aliens of London]]" is only a few days. For the Doctor, on the other hand, it's been over a century (because he popped out briefly near the end of "Rose" and went adventuring for that long before he came back). And, for Jackie and Mickey, it's a year, due to the TARDIS bringing them back to London a year late.*** The first 6 episodes of Series 3 ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones Smith and Jones]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock Gridlock]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan Daleks in Manhattan]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Evolution of the Daleks]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E6TheLazarusExperiment The Lazarus Experiment]]") take place over the span of not more than four, maybe five, days from the Doctor and Martha's POV. After this, however, there are some fairly substantial time skips.** Prior to the TimeSkip, the Harold Saxon arc encompassing series 3 occurs over a couple of days (from Saxon and his cronies' viewpoint).** The war in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter The Doctor's Daughter]]" has lasted "many generations" due to cloning technology. In reality, it lasted roughly a week.** From the Doctor's perspective, everything from stepping out of the TARDIS on the Oodsphere in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" to leaving the War Rooms with Amy in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks Victory of the Daleks]]" probably takes less than a week, as "The End of Time", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]" and "Victory of the Daleks" all lead straight into each other.** From Clara Oswald's perspective, the events of "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]" take place over the span of less than three days. For the Doctor, on the other hand, the episodes cover ''over 900 years''.* The entirety of the first season of ''Series/EmeraldCity'' takes place over the course of 10 days at the most. In "[[Recap/EmeraldCityS1E3MistressNewMistress Mistress - New - Mistress]]", both Elizabeth and Anna concur in their estimation that the Beast Forever will manifest in 8 days, when the two moons align. This event takes place at the end of "[[Recap/EmeraldCityS1E10NoPlaceLikeHome "No Place Like Home]]".* ''Series/FridayNightDinner'' is about a Jewish family having dinner on Friday; the entire plot of most episodes usually takes place over a few hours.* Spoofed in ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', where Dorothy mentions not having read ''ComicStrip/ApartmentThreeG'' in over twenty years and Blanche, who reads it every day offers to fill her in on what's happened since. Although her exposition is interrupted, it starts with "Well, let me catch you up - it is later the same day..."* ''Series/TheHoganFamily'': The episode "Leave It To Willie" (aired during Season 2, the ''Valerie'' era), where Valerie makes clear to her son Willie that while TV shows (including his favorite show, ''Leave It To Willie'') might have typical "resolved in 30 minutes" timelines, real life doesn't work that way and that the problems he (Willie) caused will take far longer to resolve. (Willie and a buddy, bored one afternoon, had stolen his father's car to go out for a joyride, caused a hit-and-run accident, tried to cover it up and allowed his older brother, David, to take the blame.)* Though the main plot of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' has taken place over several year, the framing device (Older Ted telling the story of how he met their mother to his kids) is implied to be taking place in a very short period. The kids don't age, change clothes or move from their spots on the sofa so it's likely this is all taking place over one very long afternoon. Parodied in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOe4_kdqsmU season 9 promo]]. And where the first eight seasons have generally each covered a year each (give or take), the final season all takes place over the course of three days (not counting the odd FlashBack or FlashForward).* The 2014 sitcom ''Mixology'' depicts a single night at a bar over the course of a season.* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' season 5 takes place entirely over the course of four days, [[spoiler:depicting an ongoing riot where there is essentially anarchy in the prison.]]* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' is prone to this, what with Holmes being able to solve mysteries fairly quickly. "A Study in Pink" takes place in just a little over a day, "The Blind Banker" and "The Great Game" in about three days each, and "The Hounds of Baskerville" lasts two or three days. "The Sign of Three", however, takes the cake by taking place almost exclusively over the course of a single speech, with much of the actual action taking place in flashbacks. "A Scandal in Belgravia" and "His Last Vow" then avert the trope by lasting for months.* One episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', appropriately titled "Forever In A Day," appears at first to take place over several days, but in the end is revealed [[spoiler:to have taken place entirely in Daniel's head, with barely a second or two having elapsed from where the ColdOpen left off]].* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' has "38 Minutes", which takes place in approximately real time. 38 minutes is how long a Stargate can be kept open with a reasonable amount of power, and an hour-long TV episode is actually around 40 minutes.* ''Series/{{Stella|US}}'' takes it even further. The episode "Vegetables", for example, has the main characters decide to grow crops on the floor of their apartment, bring in migrant workers to harvest the bounty, run out of produce due to over-farming, have their apartment foreclosed on by the bank, become forced to take jobs as migrant workers themselves, and finally be rescued by their boss, who turns out to be one of their previous workers they accidentally inspired to become wealthy. All but the last event happens to them in the space of one day. The three leads also created ''Film/WetHotAmericanSummer'', not surprisingly.* ''Series/TrueBlood'' takes up so far about 45 days with a 1 year time skip between seasons 3 and 4. Episodes tend to be about 1 day long, but several are real time except for perhaps a final scene.* The original two seasons of ''Series/TwinPeaks'' seem to take place over a month or two, at most, although we were never given an exact timeline indication internally.* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': From the beginning of season 4 to season 6, less than 2 months have passed, being that the entire first half of season 6 takes place in one day and a half.* ''Series/WetHotAmericanSummerFirstDayOfCamp'' shares this trope with the film it's a prequel to, covering the first day of camp (as opposed to the film's focus on the last.)* Wet Hot American Summer Ten Years Later takes place over a day like the rest of the franchise.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]* Creator/{{Aristotle}} wrote in his ''Literature/{{Poetics}}'' that tragedy tends to take place over a short period of time (no more than a day), as contrasted with epic poetry which generally takes place over a much longer period. In the Renaissance, this was taken by many dramatists to be a hard-and-fast rule (the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities classical unity of time]]") though Aristotle seems not to have intended it as such. As a result, virtually all Renaissance drama from continental Europe is an example of this trope; English drama developed independently, and as a result is less likely to follow the unities especially in its earlier forms.* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d and parodied in Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's satire ''Mandragola''. It takes place over the course of ''two'' days, so it apparently violates the classical Unity of Time rule; however, Machiavelli inserts a monologue in which he explains that none of the characters are actually going to sleep that night, so it doesn't ''really'' violate it.* ''Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'' sets over a single night.* ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'' takes place over a single day, starting at dawn and ending at midnight. Lampshaded in the title of the play's sequel, ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro, or: The Mad Day''. It covers about the same period of time.* The protagonists of ''Theatre/OnTheTown'' have only twenty-four hours for their adventures.* Creator/{{Euripides}}' ''Theatre/{{Medea}}'' takes place over the course of one day* Jez Butterworth's new play ''Theatre/{{Jerusalem}}'' takes place over the course of a single day. It's still three hours long, mind you.* As the name implies, ''Theatre/LongDaysJourneyIntoNight'' takes place over the course of a single day. It shows the struggles of a very dysfunctional family as they fall apart, although its implied that its basically just another day for them.* ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' encompasses two days.* From our good friend [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Mr. Shakespeare]]:** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' is a classic theatrical example, taking place within about a week.** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' is even worse, if you ignore the boat ride to Malta at the beginning of the play, Everything takes place in three days. Some scholars have remarked that this hectic schedule is required for the suspension of disbelief, because Iago's plans would fall apart if everyone would just stop and actually think about what's going on.** There's a reason ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' is called such -- the action onstage all takes place in less than 48 hours, and all but the very beginning and end happens in one night.** ''Theatre/TheTempest'' is said to take place over the course of approximately 3 hours, which is barely longer than its running time.* ''Theatre/TheMoonIsBlue'' takes place over what is more or less twenty-four hours.* ''Theatre/JourneysEnd'' starts on a Friday with the arrival of Lt. Raeligh. It finishes on the Monday [[spoiler:when everyone is killed]].* The first act of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' takes place over the course of one night. TheMovie stretches it to two, but it's still a stark contrast to the second act, which spans an entire year.* ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof'' takes place in real time over the course of about two or two and a half hours. Each act even begins with the last few seconds of the previous one.* ''Theatre/WhyMarry'', a satirical take on marriage and gender relations in 1917, starts on a Saturday afternoon and ends on Sunday evening.* ''Theatre/IdiotsDelight'', a satire about the people stuck in an Italian border resort as war looms, takes place over 24 hours.* Both acts of ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' last a few hours each.** Pretty much all plays by ''Creator/SamuelBeckett'' belong here.* ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' is basically one long audition, with no intermission or scene changes.* ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'' begins at lunchtime on June 17th, 1800, and ends at dawn the following day. * ''Theatre/HellBentFerHeaven'', in which a jealous schemer tries to re-start a family feud in order to get a love rival killed, takes place over a span of five hours one evening.* ''Theatre/CraigsWife'' takes place over barely 16 hours, from 5:30 pm to 9 the following morning. Rather unrealistic in this case, as a marriage unravels and falls apart in the course of a single evening after one argument.* ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' takes place over the span of three days, centered around the 4th of July. * Part of ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': The show itself takes place over a span of 15 years, according to the movie adaptation, but roughly half of Act I and most of Act II take place over three days in June, 1832.* Played doubly straight in ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'': the ShowWithinAShow takes place over the course of a single day, and the show itself takes place over exactly as long as it takes to perform, because we're just watching a man listen to a record. Lampshaded when, during "Bride's Lament", Janet is "bathed in the pale blue light of a sympathetic moon, which is ridiculous because it's the middle of the day".[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' begins with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles reading a letter (supposedly) from Eggman announcing that he has a new weapon that will allow him to take over the world in 3 days. Furthermore, the first two zones apparently take about one day each, and the remaining 5 occur on the same day.* The whole story of ''VideoGame/TheLastExpress'' takes place in just under four days, starting in the evening of July 24th, 1914, and ending in the early morning of July 28th.* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'': Last Raven's plot spans a good 24 hours.* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', from the Mako 01 Reactor Bombing to Meteorfall takes place over the course of [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII/Timeline#December_4 two months]], according to the ''10th Anniversary Ultimania''. The entire third disc (from entering the Northern Cave to Meteorfall) is explicitly stated as one week, and from Tifa waking up in Junon all the way to [[spoiler:killing Hojo]] is roughly two weeks, plus one more week that she was unconscious after the Northern Cave exploded. That means the global hop you do in disc 1 took ''at most'' one whole month, not counting the events while you are stuck in Midgar, which intuitively might have taken a week or so according to the pattern of the timeline of subsequent events.* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', which apparently took place over the course of just a single night according to the ending. The mansion itself vanishes as well.* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' takes place over one helluva night.** As do ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. The Tanker chapter of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' takes place over two or three hours, while the Plant chapter begins in the early morning hours (pre-sunrise) of April 29th, finishing at around eight in the morning on April 30th.** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' the Virtuous Mission takes an hour or two, while Operation Snake Eater (after a time skip of a week) should take about three days: Snake begins the mission at night, sleeps in the abandoned factory at Rassvet, and wakes up in the morning. It is night again by the time he reaches Granin's lab, and day once he leaves. He sleeps for a third time under the waterfall with EVA [[spoiler: after losing his eye]], then wakes up, infiltrates Groznyj Grad, and completes his mission. However, the game takes place in real time including when the player has saved the game and shut off the console, so the missions can last indefinitely. Exploiting this feature by not fighting The End for a week or more is one way of defeating him. As lampshaded in [[http://imgur.com/a/DFOm1 Hiimdaisy's abridged comic]]:-->'''Snake:''' This is the worst week ever.** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Rising]]'' averts this at first; there's a three-week gap between the prologue and first chapter, as the protagonist recuperates; later, he zips from Abkhazia to Mexico to Denver, and between each various characters were rebuilt (implied to be over a period of days for each of them). Once in Denver, however, the rest of the game ends up taking place over one helluva night [[spoiler:and said night ends on the other side of the world in Pakistan]].* ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'' takes place over the course of fifteen minutes, plus the finale song.* While ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games tend to be vague about their plot and timeline, ''Revenge of Meta Knight'' from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' covers no more than a handful of hours.* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' takes place over the handful of hours between sundown and sunrise in one night, since Sissel's told he'll disappear once the sun rises. An incredibly complex amount of stuff happens during that time, though. [[spoiler:And then you time-travel ten years into the past, if only for four minutes.]]* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':** The events of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' take place no longer than about 48 hours of the game, as it was late afternoon next day by the time Gordon got to the Lambda Complex. Including the expansion packs, the events of the first game probably take no more than 4 days total.** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' starts in the morning, going through sunset in the boat sequence, night-time in Ravenholm, through to day in the car sequence, then night-time again by the time you get to Nova Prospekt. After that is a time-skip, which is instantaneous for Gordon, and the rest of the game takes place from sometime during the day to around sunset. So from Gordon's point of view, the action is over the course of at most about fiftyish hours.*** The first ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' expansion pack ''Episode 1'' starts where main game ends, continues through the night, and ends the next day sometime in the late morning.*** The second expansion pack, ''Episode 2'', again picks up where the first one ends and starts with Gordon and Alyx knocked out by the explosion. Assuming they didn't sleep through the night and wake up the next day, Gordon and Alyx wake up when it is still day out and travel all afternoon, and get to the resistance base near sundown.** It is unclear how much time passes between the first and second games since Gordon is put into a pocket dimension at the end of the first one and leaves at the start of the second one. The games could occur consecutively, which means that for Gordon the entire series could be, from his point of view, six incredibly busy days.* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' takes place over one night. You can see Batman gain stubble as the night wears on. Its [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity sequel]] takes place over the course of about 12 hours, as announced over intercom by BigBad Hugo Strange. If one plays through just the missions that drive the plot forward, this doesn't strain plausibility too much. If one [[WideOpenSandbox doesn't]], however... The [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins prequel]] takes place over the course of one night: Christmas Eve. Finally, the [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight last game]] of the series is even more crazy, since even though it also takes place in one night, ''Halloween'', there's an overwhelming amount of things to do aside from the main quest.* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' takes place over one day. You can even see the light changing in each level, from night to morning to midday, finally ending in the evening.* Everything in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'' takes place in 24 hours.* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' has the first cutscene at night, and the game starts the morning after. By the final cutscene, it's the ''next'' morning.* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' takes place over the course of 3 days, in the sense that you only have 3 days of game time to finish up before the moon crashes down on Termina. Since it's not possible to do everything in that 3-day span (not that [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/n64/197770-the-legend-of-zelda-majoras-mask/faqs/31495 it]] [[SelfImposedChallenge hasn't been tried]]), the first iteration shows you how to reset time back to the beginning of day 1.* The first ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' game took place over the course of three nights (although it includes a flashback to three years prior to that). The sequel lasts about the same amount of time.* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Most of the Telltale games individually happen over a single day, but are too short to qualify for this trope, being about 2-4 hours each. However, the episodes in the third season all directly follow each other: the first starts in the morning, night falls during the second (which is technically entirely indoors, as the actual gameplay is Sam and Max putting themselves into a movie), and the next two both take place in the same night (albeit part of the third episode [[spoiler:took place in an [[RealityWarper altered reality]], during the daytime]]).* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil [[Videogame/ResidentEvil0 0]], [[Videogame/ResidentEvil1 1]]'', ''[[Videogame/ResidentEvil2 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard 7]]'' each take place over a single night. Furthermore, the events of ''0'' and ''1'' take place on ''consecutive'' nights. ''[[Videogame/ResidentEvil4 4]]'' takes place over two days, at most. ''[[Videogame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica Code Veronica]]'' is a bit more vague.* ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' supposedly takes place over the course of one very hectic day.* ''VideoGame/{{Portal|1}}'' is in RealTime, and the average player will take about two to three hours to finish it on a first playthrough. [[Videogame/{{Portal2}} The sequel]] is only about seven hours long, with only a few hours of unconsciousness between certain scenes.* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' takes place over two or three days, with a couple of flashbacks.* ''VideoGame/HotelDuskRoom215'' takes place on a single night. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/LastWindow'', is just ten days.* Both ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'' games each occur in the span of one day.* ''Videogame/TheFiremen'' seems to take place during one mission in the predawn hours of Christmas Day.* The ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' games tend to feature this trope, especially due to playing multiple characters in the same timeframe. The first game's main events take place across three days, labelled Day 1, 2 and 3 respectively, featuring a timetable that maps out everything (called the Link Navigator). However, there's also flashback sequences to 683AD, 1976, X Days Before, Yesterday (before Day 1) and X Days Later. ** Forbidden Siren 2's a little less obvious. While the number of days aren't listed, it's replaced by hours, going from -31:00 to all the way to 33:00 hours, [[spoiler: which is when Kyoya Suda is around in his mini-game scenario]], clocking in at over sixty-five hours, almost three days. Aside from this, there's a flashback to three years ago (specifically focusing on the aftermath of the first game), as well as a flashback to 27 years ago (which crosses over to the events within the main narrative...[[MindScrew kind of]]).** The first game's reimagining/remake ''Siren: Blood Curse'' featured time travel to play with this trope. Nearly half the game takes place over three days, but the timeline collapses due to accidental screw-ups with predestination, causing everyone to experience MentalTimeTravel, reliving the same three days plus a fourth one. So in total, ''Blood Curse'' takes place over a week but technically three days plus a repeat.* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'' takes place over a 3-4 day time period, judging by the number of times that characters are seen making a camp for the night. The only other possible indicator of time suggests that the entire game takes place over the course of one ''second'', as Lara's watch always states that it is 5:43:17 PM (The watch must have broken during the storm that wrecked the Endurance).* The events of ''[[VideoGame/{{Crysis}} Crysis 2]]'' take a little over 48 hours, with [[PlayerCharacter Alcatraz]]'s insertion happening at 5:13 A.M. on August 23rd, and his [[spoiler:deactivation of the Ceph Lithoship in Central Park]] happening by 9:20 A.M. on the 25th.* A few ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games follow this trope. ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' takes place over three-to-four days, while ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' starts at 4 P.M. and ends at sunrise the next day, with the exception of a short epilogue that takes place one month later. ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'' takes place over four-to-five days, and ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' takes place on multiple planets in the span of about a week.* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheSilentAge'' as the actual gameplay only takes around a day, but [[spoiler:between [[HumanPopsicle Joe gets into a cryogenic capsule]] and is recovered from it, it's actually forty years]]. * ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' episodes 3, 4 and 5 of the first season are set on a timespan of around 2 horrible days.* ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' also takes place in a couple of very hectic days, mostly at night because of the noir nature of the game.* ''Outlast'' takes place in a single night, the DLC ''whistleblower'' is also set on the same night, on the same building from a different point of view.* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' takes place in around 10 hours, from dusk until dawn.* ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone''. Granted, a lot of dimension-hopping was involved, but by the time you finish the game, [[spoiler: it's only sunset at the Kouryuuji estate.]]* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' begins in the evening, progressing to dusk and then nighttime as bosses are killed and the story is advanced, with morning arriving by the ending.* The majority of ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' games take place over just a few days, the most impressive being ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', which occurs over one very long, very packed day.* ''Videogame/ThimbleweedPark'' takes place over a single night, save for Boris's murder which happens 24 hours earlier.* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}: Half-Genie Hero'' takes place over the course of a single day despite all the running around she does. This gets Lampshaded InUniverse after the fifth boss, with her companions noting that stopping evil five times in one day is a personal best for her.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':** Aside from [[spoiler: the flashback case 4]], the entirety of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' takes place in less than 72 hours (Edgeworth is quite a sharp mind considering the first case happens the night before the fifth case and he's working into the wee hours of the morning and then does the same thing during the fifth case as well). Combining this game with its sequel, both ''Ace Attorney Investigations'' games span less than a month (not counting flashback cases), in contrast to earlier games, where there will usually be weeks if not months between cases (the sequel itself contains an example where Edgeworth solves a case overnight and then is immediately thrust into another one the following morning).** Cases 1, 4, and 5 of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies]]'' take place on consecutive days. The first part of case 4 happens, then the incident that sparks case 1 happens and case 1 plays out ''between'' the events of case 4, and then the remainder of case 4 and the whole of case 5 happen on the remaining days. In fact, the final trial day of case 4 and case 5 are ''the same day'' (meaning Phoenix went to trial, defended the case, and then did all the stuff that happens in case 5 in less than 24 hours). It's very tough to imagine ''so much'' happening in a single day (play the game to find out the whole story).%%* Both the ''[[Franchise/WhenTheyCry When]] [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry they]] [[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry cry]]'' series uses this, combined with use of a GroundHogDayLoop.* ''VisualNovel/WeKnowTheDevil'' takes place over the course of twelve hours as the main characters spend a night in a creepy cabin.* ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'':** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' spans over a little more than 9 hours. This is justified by the fact that the characters need to escape the [[DeadlyGame Nonary Game]] within that time.** [[GoldenEnding The best timeline]] of ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' occurs in [[spoiler:36]] hours, though the characters think it's much less because [[spoiler:their brain was running slower because of a virus they were infected with (Radical-6)]].** ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' can take less than or more than 12 hours depending on the timeline you play. Especifically, from noon on December 31 to the wee hours of the morning of January 1. The exception to this trope is the Stranded Pair ending, where two characters are trapped in the shelter for eleven months.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]* Volume 1 of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' takes place over a whole semester, and Volume 2 takes place over an indeterminate amount of time which has to be at least a few weeks, but volume 3 appears to take place over ''five days'' (except for the final scene) despite being a full hour longer than the two-hour volume 1. The first three episodes all occur on the same day, the fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes each occur on different but consecutive days, the seventh is a WholeEpisodeFlashback, and the eighth through the twelfth episodes all take place during the same night, again excluding the final scene, which seems to be set [[TimeSkip several months later]] based on the change in the weather.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* The first two chapters of ''Webcomic/BloodandSmoke'' don't even cover an entire day.* According to ''Webcomic/AnEpicComic'', the events of ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'''s "Meet the Spy" are only a day away from "Meet the Rabbid Heavy Taming Engineer." And then in just a few minutes, "Make a Mann Out of You"'s climax breaks loose, ''Team Fortress 2'' is a VERY chaotic place. * The first five acts of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' take place over the course of one day. Lampshaded at various points.* ''Webcomic/TheMansionOfE'' has been running at a rate of roughly one comic a day since 2003. Fourteen years later, battles have been fought, demons have run loose, a young nobody has become mayor of a new settlement, and much exposition has been exposited. Also, the sun has set and risen twice. 48 hours have not yet passed.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]* The first ''three and half seasons'' of ''Machinima/CouriersMindRiseOfNewVegas'' somehow take place over a single day, in which time The Courier has fought geckos and other wildlife, liberated Primm, obtained his own personnel RobotBuddy, retook the NCR Correctional Facility, saved Good Springs, pretty much reduced the Powder Gangers into a few scattered parties in the process, defeated at least four other raider gangs, exterminated giant ants blocking the highway, met [[BigBad The Legion]], and traveled almost all the way across the southern end of the map, after just waking up from '''[[ImplacableMan being shot twice in the head]]'''. This is repeatedly LampShaded by The Courier:--> '''The Courier:''' Man E.D.E we're on a roll! [[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]* Most of the episodes of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' take place throughout one day, starting in the morning and ending sometime in the afternoon, with night happening sometimes.* Though it ran for five seasons and two films, the entirety of the series ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' takes place over the course of about two years. The final season (including the GrandFinale movie) spans from January to June.* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'':** PlayedForLaughs in the episode "Vision Quest", which takes place in real time over the course of 22 long, long minutes as the cast are [[LockedInARoom trapped in an elevator.]] The use of this trope works to the episode's comedy, since the cast practically descend into madness by the end.** The entirety of ''WesternAnimation/ArcherDreamland'' takes place over the course of one week, according to Archer. Deconstructed, since he doesn't get any sleep and has pretty much lost any semblance of sanity by the end.[[/folder]]----->Wow, that was fast.----